At Rs 90,000cr haul, Kerala is indeed God's own country

Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 3: With all eyes on God's own country at the moment, Kerala seem to be living up to its name. With the massive treasure haul at the Sri Padmanabha Swamy temple stealing the limelight, the temple is inching fast to becoming the country's richest temple beating the likes of the Tirupati Balaji temple that was till now touted to be the richest. The total worth of the treasure is estimated to have crossed Rs 90,000 crore ($20 billion) with the antique value of the treasure yet to be ascertained.

After the sixth continuous day of assessing the contents of the hidden vaults, officials and administration are flabbergasted due to the sheer nature of the contents that have emerged out of the stone chambers. Among the recent findings include a huge idol of Lord Vishnu that is studded in diamonds and precious emeralds. The trove also yielded various adornments of the deity that was worth Rs 13 crore. Two other secret chambers are yet to be opened.

The recent findings of the idol of Vishnu is a whopping one and a half feet made of pure gold. The chamber A also contained figurines weighing a kilo each and a 35 kilo, 18 foot gold jewellery used to decorate the deity. Bags of precious jewels and gold chips were also found inside.

Following the massive treasure find, security has been stepped up with additional forces from the special armed police also employed in the temple. The state police have put in place a three-tier security arrangement under the guidance of Additional Director General of Police Venugopal K Nair.

Of the total of the six underground vaults, that has been named A to F, only A,C,D and F have been opened so far. Vaults B and F remains to be opened and is expected to opened on Monday (Jul 4).